Jeremy Hellickson

Organization Prospect Rankings

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  Ranked Tampa Bay Rays #1 prospect in 2011
  A high school pitcher from Iowa, Hellickson was brought along slowly after the Rays drafted him in the fourth round and signed him away from a Louisiana State scholarship for $500,000 in 2005. He didn't reach full-season ball until his third year as a pro and spent parts of two seasons each at Double-A Montgomery and Triple-A Durham. He led Rays farmhands with a 2.96 ERA and 163 strikeouts in 2008, then starred in the International League playoffs and earned MVP honors in the Triple-A national championship game in 2009. With no openings in Tampa Bay's rotation, "Hellboy" returned to Durham in 2010. He led the IL in ERA (2.45) and strikeouts per nine innings (9.4). He also was pacing the IL in wins and strikeouts when the Rays called him up in August. Hellickson turned in four quality starts in as many tries, then helped out in a bullpen role in September. Hellickson throws four pitches for strikes and does a great job of getting ahead in the count with outstanding fastball command. He keeps his four-seam fastball down in the zone, sitting at 91-92 mph and touching 95. His best pitch is a low-80s changeup, which he has added depth to over the past two years, giving him a formidable weapon against lefthanders. He also throws a solid curveball with tight spin for strikes early in the count. Hellickson added two-seam and cut fastballs to his repertoire in 2010, which helped his four-seamer play up. In the past, scouts worried about the lack of movement on his four-seamer, but those worries have been alleviated by the life on his new fastballs. He throws all of his pitches from the same arm angle, which creates good deception. Hellickson also repeats his clean delivery with impressive consistency, with his lone problem a tendency to get too straight up and down on occasion. Hellickson has proven at every step that he's as good as advertised. He made the most of his opportunities during his encore in Durham, which made him a better pitcher once he finally received the call to Tampa Bay. The Rays' rotation remains crowded, but Hellickson showed during the second half of 2010 that he's ready. Though he'll likely serve as a fourth or fifth starter as a rookie, Hellickson should become Tampa Bay's No. 2 or 3 starter in the not-too-distant future.
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  Ranked Tampa Bay Rays #2 prospect in 2010
  After leading Rays farmhands with a 2.96 ERA and 162 strikeouts in 2008, "Hellboy" was even better last season. He was much better in his second stint at Double-A Montgomery, struck out 12 in six innings in the International League playoffs and was MVP of the Triple-A national championship after working five shutout innings. Hellickson rarely gives hitters a chance to gain the upper hand. He works ahead in the count with impeccable command of his low-90s fastball, which touches 94 mph and has nice sink. His changeup has become a plus pitch as he has added late fade over the past two years. He can throw his solid curveball for strikes or get hitters to chase it out of the zone. He throws strikes and creates deception by delivering all of his pitches from the same arm angle. Hellickson occasionally lacks movement on his fastball, which makes him more hittable. With further improvement to his curveball, he could have three above-average pitches. The biggest concerns with Hellickson entering 2009 was his command, but he improved it significantly. Hellickson has little to prove in the upper minors, but also no clear opportunity in Tampa Bay to open 2010. Added to the 40-man roster in November, he'll likely start the season in Triple-A and make his big league debut later in the year.
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  Ranked Tampa Bay Rays #8 prospect in 2009
  The Rays have moved Hellickson slowly because he didn't pitch many innings as an Iowa high schooler. He reported to spring training in great shape in 2008, and proceeded to lead the system in ERA (2.96) and strikeouts (162) while reaching Double-A at age 21. Hellickson has the best overall stuff of anyone in the system not named Price. He has a lively low-90s fastball that touches 95 mph, a curveball he'll throw in any count and a solid changeup. He also creates deception by using the same arm angle for his offspeed pitches. He throws inside consistently and rarely gets rattled. Better location, particularly in the strike zone, is Hellickson's greatest need. When his command slips, he's hittable, as evidenced when he surrendered five homers in his first Double-A start. While he's poised, the high Class A Vero Beach coaching staff felt he became a bit lackadaisical prior to his midseason promotion. Though he spent a half-season at Montgomery, Hellickson is likely to open 2009 back in Double-A. In the long term, he's another future candidate for the middle of Tampa Bay's rotation.
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  Ranked Tampa Bay Rays #8 prospect in 2008
  Drafted out of an Iowa high school after serving as the staff ace of the gold medalwinning U.S. national team at the 2004 World Youth Championship, Hellickson has been brought along slowly by the Rays. Rated as the top prospect in the short-season New York-Penn League in 2006, he came down with a sore arm and missed the first couple of weeks last season. He got on a roll in the second half, allowing just 20 runs over his last 14 starts, including two in the playoffs as low Class A Columbus won the South Atlantic League crown. Hellickson commands a fastball that sits at 92-93 mph and touches 95. He has good feel for a curveball that jumps on hitters. He tries to emulate Greg Maddux, albeit with more electric stuff, and has a great feel for pitching. He has terrific arm action with an excellent release point, and he works down in the strike zone. A 6-foot-1 and 185 pounds, Hellickson lacks projectability. That's not as much of a concern as his durability. While he has the same release point for all of his pitches, he needs to repeat his delivery in order to throw quality strikes with more consistency. An improved changeup would go a long way toward making him a complete pitcher. He has worked just 195 innings since signing, but the Rays are pleased with his progress. They'll continue to advance him one level per year, which makes high Class A his next stop.
• 
  Ranked Tampa Bay Rays #10 prospect in 2007
  Hellickson, who had committed to Louisiana State, turned pro for $500,000. He started 2006 in extended spring training to work with pitching coach Dick Bosman on his delivery and location. When Hellickson got on the mound, he led the New York-Penn league in strikeouts, never allowed more than three runs in a start and rated as the loop's top prospect. Hellickson has learned to work off his low-90s fastball and commands the pitch with impressive accuracy. He works effortlessly with smooth mechanics and a clean arm action. His sharp curveball has the promise to be a plus pitch with true downer bite, and his changeup showed improvement in 2006. His competitiveness is also a plus. Hellickson needs to upgrade the command of his curveball and finetune his changeup. With his deliberate delivery, he could be easy prey for basestealers at higher levels. The Rays want Hellickson, despite his considerable polish, to establish a strong foundation at every level and expect to keep him in low Class A for the entire 2007 season. He could be poised for a breakout like Jacob McGee had in the Midwest League.
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  Ranked Tampa Bay Rays #19 prospect in 2006
  Projected to go in the first two rounds of the 2005 draft, Hellickson dropped to the fourth because clubs worried about his bonus demands and his commitment to Louisiana State. He signed for $500,000, easily the highest bonus in his round, after an accomplished amateur career that included serving as the ace of the U.S. national team that won the 2003 World Youth Championship in Taiwan. Hellickson's arm works easy in his smooth, mechanically sound delivery and produces 91-95 mph fastballs with plus movement. He surprises hitters with the way his fastball explodes and gets on top of them. His curveball has some power and sits around 74-78 mph with the potential to become a plus pitch. He also shows an excellent feel for a changeup that could become average with time. The biggest concern about Hellickson is his undersized frame for a righthander, which at 6 feet and 170 pounds isn't the definition of projectable. If he were bigger, he might have been the first Iowa prep player ever drafted in the first round. He missed his junior season in high school because of a fractured growth plate in his right shoulder, but was strong as a senior and after reporting to Princeton in mid-August. Impressive during instructional league, Hellickson should be a member of the Southwest Michigan rotation this year.

Minor League Top Prospects

• 
  Ranked International League #2 prospect in 2010
  Hellickson starred down the stretch and in the postseason for Durham in 2009, and he carved up IL hitters again this season. He led the league with a 2.43 ERA and 9.4 strikeouts per nine innings, winning league most valuable pitcher honors. Hellickson's fastball normally sits in the low 90s and touches 94-95 mph. His four-seamer is fairly straight, but he added a two-seamer in the upper 80s and a cut fastball to keep hitters honest. His changeup, the best in the league is a plus pitch with late fade, and his curveball is a solid pitch. He repeats his efficient delivery has a cerebral approach to pitching, reading hitters' swings and pitching to their weaknesses. "Jeremy has an above-average changeup and he has a good curve," Durham manager Charlie Montoyo said, "but I think what separates him from other pitchers is his ability to locate his fastball."
• 
  Ranked Southern League #9 prospect in 2009
  Hellickson had problems keeping the ball in the park when he first reached the SL in 2008, giving up 15 longballs in 13 starts, including five in his first outing for Montgomery. He did a much better job commanding his fastball down in the zone and to both sides of the plate this year, and he overmatched hitters in both Double-A and Triple-A. Throwing from a three-quarters arm slot, Hellickson works at 90-93 mph and touched 94. He keeps hitters off balance by throwing any pitch in any count, to the point where he has games where he throws nearly as many offspeed pitches as fastballs. His biggest improvement this year came with his 79-82 mph changeup, which became a plus pitch. Hellickson throws a solid-average curveball at 77-80 mph, though he'll take something off it and throw it at 73-76 for an early-count strike. He can throw his curve for strikes, though more often he'll try to bury it in the dirt as a chase pitch. He had a tendency in the past to cast his curveball, but it showed sharper definition this year. Hellickson has clean arm action, a repeatable delivery and a stride directly toward home plate. He did miss seven weeks in May and June with a shoulder sprain.
• 
  Ranked International League #6 prospect in 2009
  Hellickson made his Triple-A debut in late July and wrapped up his stay as Durham's ace. He yielded one run on four hits over his final two regular season starts, turned in two more strong starts in the IL playoffs (including a 12-strikeout outing) and finished with five scoreless innings against Memphis in the Triple-A championship. Hellickson hit a wall in Double-A in 2008, but he easily handled that level and Triple-A this season. Improvements to his fastball command and his changeup were at the heart of his step forward. He now delivers his 90-93 mph fastball to both sides of the plate with plus sink, and his deceptive changeup with late fade has become his strikeout pitch. "Hitters are missing it by a mile," Durham manager Charlie Montoyo said. Hellickson's stuff tends to flatten out up in the zone when his arm slot drops. But that happened less frequently in 2009, when he gave up eight homers, down from 22 a year ago.
• 
  Ranked Southern League #12 prospect in 2008
  The Rays waited until late April to let Hellickson make his first regular-season start last year, but he showed up to spring training in better shape this season and took off. He excelled in high Class A, where he walked just five batters in 77 innings, and his forte is his ability to throw all of his pitches for strikes. Hellickson's fastball sits in the low 90s and touches 95 with good life within the zone, though scouts say he lacks a true out pitch. His curveball is solid-average and his changeup was average, and all of his stuff plays up because of his advanced pitchability. Though he's an extreme strike-thrower with clean arm action, Hellickson still has success getting hitters to chase pitches out of the zone. Some scouts have concerns about how that will translate in the majors, however. While took him a few starts to adapt to more advanced hitters in Double-A, he finished the year by going 3-1, 3.00 over his final seven starts. "He's a strike-thrower deluxe and other teams know that," Montgomery manager Billy Gardner said. "So what he's learned is that you need to throw some bad ones, elevate, change eye level, and he's been much more effective."
• 
  Ranked Florida State League #6 prospect in 2008
  He may have a plus fastball and a sometimes devastating curveball, but the first thing FSL observers mentioned about Hellickson was his savvy. He could just reach back and blow away a lot of hitters, but he was much happier to keep them off balance. "The beautiful part for Hellickson is he will go 2-0 in a count and go to two changeups. He'll throw changeup on 3-0," Vero Beach pitching coach R.C. Lichtenstein said. "The hitter's thinking fastball and now has to rethink his plan." Hellickson's fastball sits between 92-94 mph and he can add a tick more velocity when he needs to. On the days when he was locating his 12-to-6 curveball, he was almost unhittable, though there are games where he'll lose the feel for it and it becomes a harder 11-to-5 breaker. He also believes in his solid low-80s changeup. Hellickson had the best command in the FSL, with the ability not only to throw strikes but to hit spots on both sides of the plate, and it served him well after a promotion to Double-A.
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  Ranked South Atlantic League #8 prospect in 2007
  Like Sosa, Hellickson can create some heat of his own by touching 95 with his fastball. But Hellickson's rapid development is based on his ability to work counts and attack hitters' weaknesses. "I hate to make the comparison, but he reminds me a lot of Greg Maddux," Morrison said. "He works down in the strike zone and really commands his fastball. He has great arm action that produces electric stuff. His pitches really jump on hitters." Hellickson missed the first three weeks of the season after coming down with some arm soreness in spring training, but once he got to Columbus he displayed a consistent low-90s fastball and a quality curveball. He's still learning to trust his changeup, but he uses the same release point for all three of his pitches, creating deception. He allowed just one run in two playoff starts as the Catfish won the SAL title.
• 
  Ranked New York-Penn League #1 prospect in 2006
  Hellickson was kept on a tight leash in his second pro season, opening 2006 in extended spring training before arriving in Hudson Valley in June. He unleashed his fury on NY-P hitters with a pair of plus pitches and should be a three-pitch starter in the future. Hellickson maintains the 91-93 mph velocity on his lively fastball throughout a game, and he does so effortlessly. Hellickson changes hitters' eye plane with a downer curveball that has 1-to-7 break. Under the guidance of pitching coach Dick Bosman, his changeup improved significantly and now grades out as average. At 6 feet tall, Hellickson sometimes gets under his pitches and leaves them up in the strike zone. But he didn't make too many mistakes, leading the league in strikeouts while posting a 96-16 K-BB ratio in 78 innings. His delivery is smooth but a bit deliberate, so he'll have to work on handling the running game.

Top 100 Rankings

• Ranked Baseball America's #6 prospect in 2011
• Ranked Baseball America's #18 prospect in 2010

• December, 2010 Scouting Report
  A high school pitcher from Iowa, Hellickson was brought along slowly after the Rays drafted him in the fourth round and signed him away from a Louisiana State scholarship for $500,000 in 2005. He didn't reach full-season ball until his third year as a pro and spent parts of two seasons each at Double-A Montgomery and Triple-A Durham. He led Rays farmhands with a 2.96 ERA and 163 strikeouts in 2008, then starred in the International League playoffs and earned MVP honors in the Triple-A national championship game in 2009. With no openings in Tampa Bay's rotation, "Hellboy" returned to Durham in 2010. He led the IL in ERA (2.45) and strikeouts per nine innings (9.4). He also was pacing the IL in wins and strikeouts when the Rays called him up in August. Hellickson turned in four quality starts in as many tries, then helped out in a bullpen role in September. Hellickson throws four pitches for strikes and does a great job of getting ahead in the count with outstanding fastball command. He keeps his four-seam fastball down in the zone, sitting at 91-92 mph and touching 95. His best pitch is a low-80s changeup, which he has added depth to over the past two years, giving him a formidable weapon against lefthanders. He also throws a solid curveball with tight spin for strikes early in the count. Hellickson added two-seam and cut fastballs to his repertoire in 2010, which helped his four-seamer play up. In the past, scouts worried about the lack of movement on his four-seamer, but those worries have been alleviated by the life on his new fastballs. He throws all of his pitches from the same arm angle, which creates good deception. Hellickson also repeats his clean delivery with impressive consistency, with his lone problem a tendency to get too straight up and down on occasion. Hellickson has proven at every step that he's as good as advertised. He made the most of his opportunities during his encore in Durham, which made him a better pitcher once he finally received the call to Tampa Bay. The Rays' rotation remains crowded, but Hellickson showed during the second half of 2010 that he's ready. Though he'll likely serve as a fourth or fifth starter as a rookie, Hellickson should become Tampa Bay's No. 2 or 3 starter in the not-too-distant future.